Photographer Carlota Guerrero on collaborating with Solange and getting signed to WeFolk (some NSFW)

Introducing Carlota Guerrero, a formerly little-known Barcelona-based photographer and art director who this summer ended up working on the artwork for one of the acclaimed albums of 2016, Solange’s A Seat at the Table. Going beyond the traditional, now somewhat staid, album release model, A Seat at the Table launched with a 112-page book shot by 26-year-old Carlota.

Last week, Carlota signed to WeFolk, where her dreamy, ethereal images will sit on the roster alongside the work of some of our favourite photographers like Juno Calypso, Ewen Spencer and Viviane Sassen.

We caught up with the creative to chat about meshing Solange’s often political message with her own, already clearly defined, aesthetic.

Carlota Guerrero

Carlota Guerrero

Carlota Guerrero

We hear you just got signed to WeFolk. Congratulations! How did that come about?

I reached WeFolk and WeFolk reached me at the same time, without knowing. It was a magical coincidence. I went to meet the team a month ago, and we just started to work together. They represent some of my favourite artists, so I’m very, very proud to be a part of it.

And how did you start working with Solange?

Solange’s manager got in touch with me in March. Solange had found my work on Instagram and wanted to collaborate with me for the art direction of her project. We did a performance at the Tate, had a beautiful creative connection and kept working together in the videos and the artwork for A Seat at the Table.

Tell us a bit more about the process behind creating the album’s (already iconic) artwork.

We spent the whole month of August working together, travelling from New Orleans to New Mexico in a van, shooting everyday for Cranes in the Sky and Don’t Touch My Hair. We also went to New York to shoot the cover for the album. Alan Ferguson — her husband — directed the videos and Solange and I co art directed them. I was very inspired from her way of working from the beginning. She is such a strong, talented, hard-working woman and she’s taught me a lot. She has a very strong and clear vision, but also gave me the space to have a strong and clear vision, so we had a lot of conversations and we tried to balance both our styles. The album has a very strong message about black community, and I had to learn a lot and help her translate such strong messages in a beautiful and clear visual language.

Norman Behrendt has recently moved to London to pursue a masters in photography, having grown up in Germany. “I am a Berliner,” he explains. “Born in East-Berlin in the former GDR; I was eight when the Berlin Wall came down and Berlin and Germany got reunited. This memorable event and the collapse of the Soviet Union shaped my awareness of the social and political developments in Europe nowadays.”

For photographer Bolade Banjo, creating or documenting a narrative through a lens has always been at the forefront of his practice. “Since a child, I have always been interested in visual storytelling, the joy you felt when engulfed with imagery and how much one could learn while experiencing something new,” he tells It’s Nice That.

Introducing Polaroid Originals, a new brand which launches today in tandem with the 80th anniversary of Polaroid. “Polaroid hasn’t had a rebrand – they’re still very much around,” explains Polaroid’s creative director Danny Pemberton. “Polaroid Originals, on the other hand, is a completely new brand, built by members of the Impossible Project, completely dedicated to analogue instant photography.”

Emma Hardy has a client list bursting with big names including British Vogue, _Canon, Airbnb, Paul Smith, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and a cascade of others. It’s her personal portfolio that we instantly warmed to though, with a series of images that capture the raw and tender moments of family life.